


Rites of Spring

by Lint



Category: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (TV 2018)
Genre: F/F, Polyamory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 01:28:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,334
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16713955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lint/pseuds/Lint
Summary: Prudence leans down to press a soft kiss against Sabrina's lips.“Oh my dear,” she sighs. “What are you?”





	Rites of Spring

**Author's Note:**

> I guess you could call this a continuation from Cherries in Brandy.

 

 

The moon is a sliver above their heads, gouging itself into the night sky, shining just enough light to illuminate the trail. Pinkies all linked together, as is their custom, they walk along with faces forward anticipating the events to come.

 

Sabrina loves the smell of damp air, so alive in these woods, it puts a serene smile upon her face. A smile Prudence takes note of, mirroring it herself, followed quickly by Agatha and Dorcas. Witches in the woods at the midnight hour. Nowhere in the world a more natural place for them to be. Agatha begins to hum, a song recognized by all four, and soon everyone chimes in. The song calling to the creatures of the night, asking for safe passage, and offering front row seats for the show about to begin.

 

A break in the trees is where they stop, each contributing to build a bonfire in the center of the gap, all four facing the gathered wood with palms out and shouting the word that ignites a flame. Sabrina doesn't think she'll ever get used to it. Though she's had the magic within her veins all her life, there's just something about the freedom of being able to use it so openly that tickles her so.

 

The Sisters catch the thought in her head, offering matching smiles and sentiment. Agatha then moves to retrieve the book from her satchel, thick and leather bound, taken from the library with misrepresented intention. Held in the cradle of her arm she flips to the appropriate page, shiny black fingernail indicating to Sabrina where she is to begin, the Sisters themselves already familiar with the passage written within.

 

The book is heavier than she thought, bowing slightly with its heft as Agatha passes it to her, an amused giggle echoed from the Sisters. Sabrina adjusts accordingly, widening her stance, as the other girls circle the bonfire.

 

She catches each one of their eyes, all giving a nod, before she begins to read. She does not know the words she speaks, but magic has never been about needing a literal understanding to invoke their power, which Sabrina begins to feel stirring inside of her.

 

Casting a quick glance up at her cohorts, she knows they feel it too, arms and hands outstretched with invisible electricity crackling between them. Moving onto the second passage, the fire bursts upward, flames projected straight into the night sky.

 

A startled gasp escapes all the Sisters, but a laugh quickly follows, collective pleasure in this play circling through them. They invoke the power of the moon. Of the night. Of the trees. They invoke the hidden magic in corners long forgotten by the Dark Lord. They invoke it in the name of all the witches fallen before them.

 

It's during the third passage, when Sabrina feels something within her begin to stir, different to that of which they call. Pausing in her reading she looks at the Sisters again, but their attention is focused upward, concentrating to hold onto this energy swelling between them.

 

It's during the second line of the fourth passage, that the book drops from Sabrina's hands, arms and hands snapping out to match the Sisters. The words still fall from her lips, recalled from somewhere she doesn't recognize inside herself, a surge building so grand it feels as if she may burst.

 

The stars themselves seem to know her name, calling her to return to them, her body being drawn toward the sky. Black streaks edge into her vision, the warmth of blood dripping from her nose, as her head tilts back and cries toward the moon.

 -

The ground is cold and damp against her back, eyes fluttering open to the concerned faces of the Sisters looking down at her, Prudence's hand in particular held against her cheek.

 

“Oh praise Satan,” she sighs when Sabrina focuses on her. “You're alive.”

 

“W-what...” Her tongue feels heavy inside her mouth. “H-h-happened.”

 

“You were,” Agatha begins.

 

“Floating,” Dorcas finishes.

 

Sabrina's brow furrows.

 

“I, what?”

 

“Floating,” Prudence reiterates. “Above the fire. Above our heads. The power we invoked shooting out of you like a burst pipe.”

 

Sabrina tries to sit up, but the Sisters keep her held down, and she has no more energy to resist. Prudence's fingers caress her lightly.

 

“You shouldn't be able to do that,” she offers quietly.

 

Sabrina is confused.

 

“What did I do?”

 

The Sisters share a look.

 

“Become a conduit,” Agatha answers.

 

“It's a privilege for High Priests and Elders,” Dorcas explains further.

 

Prudence leans down to press a soft kiss against Sabrina's lips.

 

“Oh my dear,” she sighs. “What are you?”

 

/\

 

Adeline Hubbard has been a thorn in Prudence's side since her first day at the Academy. Endless mocking for her status as an orphan, despite Father Blackwood's favoritism, and the found family of her Sisters. There was nothing about Prudence that Adeline could not find to make the subject of fun, and did so, with an enthusiasm Prudence herself did not understand until Sabrina Spellman came into her life. How, despite her standing in the coven earned through rigorous study and training, never quite felt good enough when there was one person in all the world it did not matter to.

 

It certainly didn't help, that Adeline's family is one of the most powerful in the coven, and any retaliation on her part would be met with swift and harsh punishment. Or that harrowing, and bullying, was just a natural consequence of their world. Evil for evil's sake.

 

A reprieve came Prudence's way, when the girl ventured off to Europe for a year abroad with cousins in England, and she'd spent nearly all of it occupied with Sabrina and her sisters. That reprieve seems to have come to an end, when Adeline waltzes into the dining hall as if she'd never left, eyes immediately locking onto the table where Prudence and everyone sit.

 

The gasp cannot be helped, knuckles quickly going white with the tightened grip on her fork, Agatha and Dorcas echoing her surprise. Sabrina frowns at the reaction, not knowing the story behind it, looking to Nick for some kind of explanation. He offers nothing but a scowl toward Adeline, who approaches the table with a cruel glee.

 

“Hello Prudence,” she greets, voice dripping with derision. “Long time no see.”

 

She drops her fork onto the tray with a clang, keeping eyes on her hands and she wipes them vigorously with a napkin.

 

“Thank Lucifer for that,” she replies, finally looking up to her adversary.

 

Adeline smiles eerily.

 

“You didn't miss me at all?”

 

Prudence stares daggers, Sabrina recognizing the contempt, having once been on the end of it herself.

 

“Does one miss an open sore?” Prudence questions. “A festering wound? You were gone and I daresay the Academy was better for it.”

 

Adeline pouts playfully.

 

“Such things you say,” she detracts. “As if your words mean anything to me at all.”

 

Sabrina is honestly confused by the entire confrontation. The Prudence she knows does not take anyone's opinion of her to heart, let alone someone who seems to detest her so easily, nor would she just sit there and take it with no reciprocation other than some weak harsh words of her own. She's further befuddled, by the fact that Agatha and Dorcas also sit there with nothing to offer, as if they're helpless to the situation as well. Even Nick doesn't come to her defense.

 

Sabrina opens her mouth to fire something Adeline's way, but is halted by Prudence placing a hand on her wrist, the silent message that Adeline has not noticed her and she is better for it conveyed with a touch. Anger begins to stew inside of Sabrina. She hates bullies no matter what world she finds herself in. And though she's found it in her heart to forgive and forget what the Weird Sisters had done to her upon entering their lives, something about Adeline Hubbard does not warrant any such feeling.

 

A spark ignites somewhere deep inside, just as it had the night of the bonfire, a power not her own burgeoning within her bones. Looking at Adeline she's struck by one thought, hidden in a deep well of the girl's mind, a fear she's managed to keep buried since she was a child.

 

Sabrina smirks, the mere curl of her lip bringing Adeline's attention to her for the first time, as she turns to reel her in with a twisted net. The Sisters gasp in unison, while Nick flinches in his seat, as the giant spider manifests itself behind Adeline.

 

She turns to see what all the fuss is about, and Sabrina swears she can hear her heart stop for just a moment, before the scream escapes her throat.

 

/\

 

“I don't understand,” Sabrina says. “Why are you so upset?”

 

They're in the choir room after practice, Prudence having not said a single word to her since lunch, Agatha and Dorcas watching on in rapt attention. Prudence straightens up, smoothing out the front of her dress, before turning to Sabrina.

 

“I'm not upset,” she declares. “I'm frustrated.”

 

Sabrina blinks at her.

 

“Because of what happened in the dining hall?” she asks. “I thought that's what we did. Stand up for each other.”

 

Prudence tilts her head.

 

“Of course we do,” she gives. “And there was nothing sweeter than hearing that unbearable wench scream her lungs out. But once again, you pull a trick from a hat you have no business wearing.”

 

Sabrina is perplexed with the implication.

 

“The spider?”

 

“Yes the spider,” Prudence snaps. “Tell me, Sabrina. From which book did you learn to gleam thoughts? Let alone deep, dark fears? How many hours of practice did you put in to hone these skills? How is it that you just happened to do it? When there is no fathomable reason you should be capable?”

 

“I don't know,” she replies. “I... I didn't ask for this.”

 

“That's precisely it!”

 

Prudence stops, taking a breath as if realizing anger will get the best of her.

 

“You didn't ask,” she continues more calmly. “That's true. But these things you do, this power you have, was given by the Dark Lord himself.”

 

Agatha and Dorcas stare at Sabrina, as if the statement confirms their own suspicions as well.

 

“And not only do you blaspheme by daring to deny the truth of it.”

 

She takes a step closer to Sabrina.

 

“You have the audacity that, given the choice, you would not even _want_ it.”

 

Sabrina cannot deny that.

 

“Not only is this a mockery of our faith, our beliefs, you don't even seem to realize that any witch. Myself and our Sisters included, would kill to possess the gifts bestowed upon you. That we study endlessly. We work tirelessly. All to achieve would you appear to do with just a thought in your head.”

 

Sabrina is shaken, eyes dropping to her feet. Prudence presses closer, hand reaching to take Sabrina's, fingers running little trails along her palm.

 

“You are chosen,” she concedes softly. “Don't you realize this? Why can't you relish it? Why can't you-”

 

“I don't know,” Sabrina offers softly. “I'm not... I'm no one special.”

 

Prudence laughs, though humor escapes her tone.

 

“Of course you are,” she insists. “Would I really waste my affections on someone who is not?”

 

She looks to Agatha and Dorcas.

 

“Would any of us?”

 

“No,” Agatha agrees.

 

“We would not,” Dorcas seconds.

 

Prudence brings Sabrina's hand to her lips, pressing a gentle kiss against the skin, then lets it drop as she turns and walks away.

 

/\

 

Sabrina isn't sure what time it is, but feels like she's been tossing and turning for hours. Any point she becomes comfortable enough to sleep, her thoughts fall to Prudence, and the sandman retreats once again. Gone from the dorm, along with Agatha, to Father Blackwood's estate. Dorcas left with the short straw to keep an eye on Sabrina.

 

As if abandoning her after an argument will send her scampering back to the mortal world. Like her name isn't inscribed in blood along with the rest of theirs. Sabrina kicks the covers away and stares briefly toward the ceiling, before turning her attention to Dorcas' bed. With a sigh she rises from her own, pads quietly across the room, until her knees come into contact with the mattress. She stands there for all of three seconds before Dorcas rolls toward her, lifting up the blankets and offering a spot.

 

“Come on,” she mumbles sleepily.

 

Sabrina smiles as she slips easily inside, tucking her head against Dorcas' chest, and hums contently when arms wrap around her.

 

“Took you long enough,” Dorcas teases.

 

Sabrina nuzzles her gently.

 

“I thought you were mad at me, too.”

 

Dorcas scoffs lightly.

 

“No one is mad at you, drama queen.” She assures. “It's just that Pru-”

 

Cutting herself off, as if second guessing whether it's her place to explain further, Dorcas' lips brush against the top of Sabrina's head before pressing a kiss there.

 

“Prudence is rarely in a position of envy,” she continues. “It's maddening to her. It may look like everything comes easily to the three of us, because we simply take what we want and do as we like, no one ever sees the effort such action actually requires.”

 

Sabrina takes this new information in.

 

“Then you come along, storming into our lives knowing nothing and questioning everything, as if the world was made to bend to your will. And somehow it does.”

 

Sabrina really doesn't like how that sounds.

 

“That's not true,” she objects.

 

“Hush,” Dorcas detracts. “It's certainly true enough. Things go your way more than most. You walked with mortals and shunned us. Tried to end so many traditions just because you disagreed with them. Really, Sabrina you should have been excommunicated and hung from a tree, but now look at you. Queen Bee with each one of us Sisters fallen to your siren call.”

 

Sabrina lifts hear head to object again, but Dorcas stops her with a proper kiss.

 

“I would not wish such a fate on you now,” she insists. “Whether the Dark Lord favors you as much as we assume him to, is of no consequence to me. Or Agatha. But Prudence? She just wants to be loved.”

 

The statement perturbs Sabrina more than the Dark Lord favoring her, or the world bending itself to her will, because if Prudence honestly doesn't feel love between the four of them what is the point of being together?

 

“Don't I?” she asks. “Don't we?”

 

“Oh honey,” Dorcas sighs. “It's the Dark Lord she wants to look upon her as we do. To praise her as he does you.”

 

Sabrina bites her tongue to keep from denying it again, and finally falls asleep with the sound of Dorcas' heart beating in her ear.

 

/\

 

Agatha helps Sabrina sneak into the forbidden section of the library, hand tugging her along the torch lit aisles, always game for something sly and sneaky.

 

“How do you even know about this book?” she asks.

 

Sabrina casts a cautious look behind them before answering.

 

“My Aunt Hilda.”

 

“What do you want it for again?”

 

“I didn't say.”

 

Agatha shoots her a glance, but Sabrina only grins in return.

 

“If I'm risking the lash by bringing you in here, don't I deserve to know why?”

 

“It's a surprise,” Sabrina offers. “One well worth it, I assure you.”

 

Agatha pulls on Sabrina's hand, so that she stumbles into an embrace, black stained lips looking for a kiss.

 

“It better be.”

 

Sabrina cranes her neck for another.

 

“Trust me.”

 

Agatha smiles, turning and pulling Sabrina along, the fingers of her free hand skimming along the books lined on the shelves. Finally she stops on one particular spine, nail scratching away some dust, before pulling it from its perch.

 

“Here we are,” she confirms, slipping it into her satchel. “Now let's get out of here before-”

 

The sound of footsteps behind them sends Sabrina into evasive action, pressing into Agatha and pushing her against the stacks, hand cupping behind her head and pulling down to kiss her theatrically. Agatha needs no provocation to play along, arms slipping under Sabrina's to hold her close, a purposeful moan emitting from her mouth.

 

The librarian clears her throat, and the two jump apart as if they hadn't planned on getting caught, each looking sheepish.

 

“You're not allowed in here,” she states dismissively, casting a cold stare at each girl. “Aren't there other places more suited to your carnal desires?”

 

“My apologies Ms. Hatchet,” Agatha is quick to atone. “We were just... We'll go.”

 

She takes Sabrina's hand, pulling her along once more, and offers a whispered warning.

 

“Don't look back,” she insists.

 

“I won't.”

 

/\

 

The moon is full, when Sabrina leads the Sisters on the familiar path through the woods, though the anticipation of what's to come is not felt by all. Prudence is only there because of constant prodding by all three, her envious disposition still disruptive of group harmony. Agatha and Dorcas are deathly curious as to what Sabrina has in store for them, the teenage witch not giving a clue to her intention for the ritual this night.

 

A fire is built in the clearing, as Agatha removes the book from her satchel, handing it to Sabrina with a smile. One Prudence takes note of, and reacts with frown that deepens upon realizing Dorcas is doing the same.

 

“Whatever is going on here,” she states in a clipped tone. “I don't like it.”

 

Sabrina catches her eye.

 

“You will,” she promises. “All of you.”

 

She opens the book, finds the correct passage, and begins her incantation.

 

“I call upon the Goddess of Earth,” she reads in a commanding voice. “The rites of spring, birth and rebirth.”

 

The bonfire grows to twice its size.

 

“I call upon my power within,” she continues on. “To be shared with my brethren. That those I love be equal with these gifts given.”

 

Prudence looks to her with wide eyes, then shoots a questioning glance at each of her sisters, who only answer with confounded stares of their own.

 

“Gifts I give freely, my will and purpose be true.”

 

Sabrina locks eyes with each of them, a brief moment shared between.

 

“For what good is power alone? When I could share it with each of you.”

 

The book drops from Sabrina's hand, as her feet leave ground, arms outstretched as her head tilts back to cry toward the stars. Prudence, Agatha, and Dorcas quickly follow as the bonfire explodes in a burst of light.

 

-

 

Fallen leaves crunch underneath Sabrina's head, as her eyes slowly open, the Sisters looking down at her.

 

“Did it work?” she asks softly.

 

They all laugh in relief.

 

“I believe it did,” Prudence confirms.

 

“Good.”

 

Prudence pulls her up carefully, cradling Sabrina in her arms, as Agatha and Dorcas rest on their knees next to them.

 

“Why would you do this?” she questions.

 

Sabrina reaches up to caress her cheek.

 

“Do you really have to ask that?”

 

The look in Prudence's eyes says yes. No one has ever chosen her. Chosen her Sisters. The very idea that someone would do so willingly is almost foreign.

 

“If the Dark Lord truly favors me,” Sabrina clarifies. “Then I choose to share that favor with you. All of you. My girls. My lo...”

 

She could sleep right here in Prudence's arms, she's so exhausted from the ritual.

 

“Rest now,” Prudence offers, pressing a kiss to Sabrina's forehead, then shifting back to allow her Sisters to do the same.

 

“Wait,” Sabrina stalls, fighting to keep her eyes open. “I have to say it. Just once.”

 

“No you don't,” Prudence assures. “Does she Sisters?”

 

“No,” they echo unison. “We know.”

 

“Fine,” Sabrina accepts. “But do you-”

 

“Yes,” Prudence admits. “So much, it makes me sick.”

 

Sabrina smiles as her eyes fall closed, knowing that's as close as she's ever going to get from them, and takes it just the same.

 

 

 


End file.
